748. Verse 11. And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb, signifies resistance and victory by Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. This is evident from the signification of "blood," as being, in reference to the Lord, Divine truth proceeding (See above, n. 328, 329); also from the signification of "the Lamb," as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human (See above, n. 314); from which it can be seen that "to overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb" signifies to conquer him, that is, those who are signified by "the dragon and his angels," by means of Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. It is said, Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, since all Divine truth which fills the heavens and constitutes the wisdom of the angels in the heavens proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human; for the Lord's Divine Human is united to the Divine Itself which was in Him from conception, so that they are one; the Divine Itself that was in Him from conception is what He called "Father;" this is united to His Human as the soul is united with the body; this is why the Lord says that:

He is one with the Father (John 10:30, 10:38).

And that He is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:7-11).

Because there is such a union, Divine truth, after the glorification of His Human, proceeds from His Divine Human. The Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human is what is called "the Holy Spirit." That this proceeds from the glorified Human of the Lord, He Himself teaches in John:

The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39).

The Human glorified is the Divine Human. (But on this more may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,n. 280-310; also in Heaven and Hell, from beginning to end. That "the blood of the Lamb" means the Divine proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, may be seen above, n. 476.)

[2] From this it can be seen how much the sense of the letter of the Word differs from its spiritual sense; also how the Word is falsified when it is regarded in a merely exterior way, and not at the same time interiorly. How great the difference is can be seen from this, that "the blood of the Lamb" in the sense of the letter means the Lord's passion of the cross, but in the spiritual sense Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human. If, then, that Michael conquered the dragon by the Lord's passion of the cross is taken as the real truth, it follows thence that by this the Lord took away all the sins of the world, and also by this moved His Father to mercy towards the human race; and yet these ideas are not in harmony with Divine truth which the angels in heaven have, nor with the genuine understanding of truth. How can it be understood that the Lord by the passion of the cross took away all the sins of the world, when yet every man after death becomes such as his life has been in the world, those who do evil coming into hell, and those who do good into heaven? And how can it be understood that God the Father was moved to mercy by the blood of the Son on the cross, and that He had need of such means, when yet He is in Himself mercy itself, love itself, and good itself? From this it is evident that the Word, here and in a thousand other places is falsified if it is looked at in a mere exterior way, and not at the same time interiorly. To look at it exteriorly is to look at it from the letter, but to look at it interiorly is to look at it from the doctrine of genuine truth. When it is believed from doctrine that the Lord subjugated the hells and at the same time glorified His Human by means of temptations, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and complete victory by which He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human, this can be understood and consequently believed; and that Michael conquered by the passion of the cross becomes an apparent truth, while that He conquered by the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human becomes the real truth. But when the apparent truth is taken for the real truth, and is confirmed, then the Word is falsified, according to what has been set forth above (n. 719) in the way of illustration.

10038. 'You shall burn with fire outside the camp' means that those things must be banished to hell and be consumed by the evils of self-love. This is clear from the meaning of 'burning with fire' as consuming by means of the evils of self-love, for 'burning' means consuming or devouring and 'fire' the evil of self-love (for these meanings of 'burning' and 'fire', see 1297, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141, 9434); and from the meaning of 'the camp' as heaven and the Church, and in the contrary sense the place where heaven and the Church do not exist, thus where hell exists, dealt with below. The reason why 'being burned with fire' means being consumed by the evils of self-love is that that love consumes every good or truth of faith. Scarcely anyone at the present day knows that self-love does this, nor consequently that this love constitutes hell with a person and that it is what should be understood by hell-fire.

[2] There are two fires of life that exist with a person; one is self-love, the other is love to God. Those in whom self-love predominates cannot be governed by love to God, for those loves are opposites. They are opposites because self-love gives rise to all evils, which are contempt for others in comparison with self, enmity towards those who do not treat oneself favourably, and in the end to hatred, vengeance, brutality, and cruelty; and these evils act in total opposition to Divine influx, consequently annihilate truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, these being the things that flow in from the Lord. Anybody who stops to reflect may know that everyone's love is the fire of his life - for without love there is no life, and the character of the love determines that of the life - and therefore that self-love gives rise to evils of every kind, doing so in the measure that he has only himself in view, that is, self-love reigns in him. The worst kind of self-love is the love of dominion over others for selfish reasons, that is, the love of possessing dominion solely for the sake of position and gain. Those in whom that love predominates may, it is true, make profession of faith and charity, but they do so with their lips, not with their heart; indeed the worst among them look on the things that belong to faith and charity, thus the holy things of the Church, as means to their own ends. But self-love and all the different types of it, also the evils that gush out of it, and the condition of the selfish in the next life, must in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated in detail somewhere else. They have been referred to here to enable people to know what 'being burned with fire outside the camp' means.

[3] The fact that 'the camp' where the children of Israel were encamped represented heaven and the Church, and therefore that 'outside the camp' represented the place where heaven and the Church did not exist, thus where hell was, becomes clear from those places in the Word which mention the camp and the encampment of the children of Israel in the wilderness, such as the following in Moses,

The children of Israel shall camp, [every] man by his own camp, and [every] man by his own standard, according to their armies. And the Levites shall camp around the dwelling-place of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel. Numbers 1:52-53; 2:2.

In addition, Numbers 2:1-end says that the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun encamped to the east; the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; and the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north. But the Levites were in the middle of their camps. The like applied when they set out on their journeys, Numbers 2:17; 10:1-end. The reason why their encampments were arranged in that kind of order was so that they might represent heaven and the Church, 9320 (end). Moreover the tribes according to which the children of Israel set up their camps represented all the forms of good and all the truths in their entirety that belonged to heaven and the Church, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997. This explains why it says that Jehovah dwells in the middle of the camps, Numbers 5:3, and that He walks in the middle of them and they will therefore be holy, Deuteronomy 23:14, and why, in the prophecy uttered by Balaam, when he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, How good are your tabernacles, O Jacob, and your dwelling-places, O Israel! Numbers 24:2-3, 5.

[4] Since heaven and the Church was represented by the camp it follows that 'outside the camp' meant the place where neither heaven nor the Church existed, thus where hell was. That is why everyone who was unclean and also anyone who was guilty was sent out there, as may be recognized from the following,

You shall send out of the camp everyone who is leprous, and everyone suffering a discharge, and everyone unclean on account of a soul ¹ . Whether they are male or female ² you shall send them outside the camp, so that they may not defile the camps, in the middle of which Jehovah dwells. Numbers 5:2-3; Leviticus 13:45-46.

A man who is not clean by reason of an accident in the night shall go outside the camp and not come into the middle of the camp. When he has washed himself with water and the sun has set he shall enter the camp. There shall be a space for you outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall cover your excrement by means of a spade ³ , since Jehovah walks in the middle of the camp. Therefore the camp shall be holy. Deuteronomy 23:10-14.

And the stoning of people was done outside the camp, Leviticus 24:14; Numbers 15:35-36.

From all this it is now clear that 'you shall burn with fire the flesh, skin, and dung of the young bull, outside the camp' means that evils, meant by these things, must be banished to hell.

[5] The same thing as was represented by the camp and the area outside it was also represented by the land of Canaan and the lands around it after that land had been divided up as inheritances among the children of Israel. This is why in the Word 'the land of Canaan' or simply 'the land' means heaven and the Church, and 'the children of Israel' those who are in heaven and the Church. For the meaning of 'the land' as heaven and the Church, see the places referred to in 9325; and for that of 'the children of Israel' as those who are there, 9340.

Footnotes: